MBA with Accounting Practice Focus

Course Overview

Course Descriptions

ACC 681: Introduction to Financial and Managerial Accounting

This course provides an introduction to financial and managerial accounting. Since this course focuses on accounting’s role in providing information for management decisions, it also includes techniques for planning and controlling business operations to achieve company goals. Topics include the accounting cycle, financial statements, and financial ratios. From a managerial perspective, topics include job-order, process costing, activity-based costing, cost behavior, cost volume profit analysis, budgets, variances, and capital budgeting.

ACC 682 - Intermediate Accounting

Entities that prepare financial statements are guided by principles of financial reporting practices. These practices are in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Increasingly, these standards adhere to global practices and standards as well. To increase student knowledge and skills concerning these standards, the course begins with expanded explanations of income statements and balance sheets. As the course progresses, students gain more complex skill with accounting applications such as leases, postretirement benefits, and accounting for income taxes. Additionally, this course includes advance application for the statement of cash flows.

ACC 683 - Taxation

This is an introductory course in taxation in which students will be exposed to the various types of federal taxes and learn the basics of federal income taxation as it applies to businesses and individuals. The course begins with a discussion of basic concepts of federal taxation applicable to all taxpayers. Emphasis is placed on study of the basic income tax formula, including income inclusions, exclusions, deductions, and the tax consequences of property transactions. This is followed by a study of income tax laws as they affect formation, operations, and distributions of corporations and partnerships. The course concludes with a study of the specific income tax provisions applicable to individuals and an introduction to the tax issues associated with the transfer of personal wealth.

ACC 684 – Accounting Information Systems

The primary focus of the course is to cover the nature, design, and implementation of accounting information systems. The objective of the course is to develop students’ understanding of the theory and practice of relational database management systems in the accounting view of enterprise-wide databases.

ACC 685 – Financial Statement Analysis and Valuation

This course emphasizes the fundamental techniques of financial statement analysis. The course also examines the use of accounting information in investment and credit decisions including the valuation of equity investments.

ACC 686 - Auditing and Assurance

This course covers auditing and assurance services, primarily the audit of financial statements, and their role in business and society. The course has numerous learning objectives that should be achieved upon successful completion of the course. The overall objectives that the successful student will accomplish are to demonstrate knowledge of auditing concepts, auditing standards, the audit process, the role of accountants in our society and their ethical environment, the auditor’s and management’s responsibilities in the conduct of an audit, and the practical application of audit procedures within an audit examination.

ACC 687 – Advanced Cost Accounting

The course focuses on the use of accounting information in reporting managerial performance and making business decisions. The course covers the preparation and use of managerial accounting information for use in planning, budgeting, control, pricing, and in making other business decisions. Topics include in-depth studies of techniques and issues surrounding cost allocation methods, approaches to solving complex accounting problems, standard cost systems and variance analysis, and variable costing. Additionally, the formal aspects of management control such as the design of responsibility centers, budgets and standards, performance reports and management compensation will be discussed.

ACC 688 – Advanced Accounting and Financial Reporting

The primary focus of the course is on business combinations and preparing consolidated financial statements. Additionally, the accounting principles and practices applied to foreign operations and partnerships are discussed along with foreign currency translation issues. This will be followed by an exploration of complex financial reporting issues of contemporaneous interest.

ACC 689 – Issues in Accounting with a focus on IFRS and Governmental/Nonprofit Entities

This course introduces core concepts and tools of IFRS and accounting and financial reporting including governmental and nonprofit organizations. Topics include transaction analysis, financial statement analysis and interpretation, compliance issues, and operational and cash budgeting. In addition, the impact of standards such as those promulgated by the IASB, GASB, and the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) are investigated and evaluated. Prerequisite: ACC 682

This course focuses on conducting fraud examinations, and includes discussion of procedures used in forensic accounting examinations and reasons behind using these procedures. In addition, coursework addresses how allegations of fraud should be investigated to meet requirements of civil and/or criminal court procedures. Also covered are detection, investigation and prevention of specific types of fraud. Prerequisite: ACC 682

MGT 600 – Managing Responsible Behavior in Organizations

This course covers concepts of leadership, motivation, group dynamics, personality, organizational development strategies, and other behavioral aspects involved in the effective management of an organization through readings, lecture, video, discussion, and case analyses. The emphasis is on building a sound grasp of leadership practice, and on developing the ability to apply such knowledge to actual business problems.

BUS 640 – Fundamentals of Finance, Accounting, & Economics

This course details the fundamentals of financial accounting and finance, as well as microeconomic concepts, and touches on quantitative skills needed to pursue the Master of Science in Finance degree or other master degrees that entail taking elective courses in finance.

MKT 660 – Foundations of Marketing Management

The course introduces students to the analytical concepts and tools of marketing management. Special emphasis is placed on the relationships between marketing and overall company strategy, the development of a customer orientation, the integration of marketing throughout the organization and the implementation of systems for planning and controlling the marketing effort. Students consider problems of consumer analysis, product planning, integrated communication, distribution and pricing. The discovery and application of marketing management skills are developed through the use of readings, cases, exercises, and class discussions.

ECO 690 – Essentials of Economic Theory

An economic study of the environment in which the decision making process takes place in management and the functional areas. Structured especially for students without an undergraduate background in economics.

BTE 621 – Management Information Systems

This course is designed to give prospective managers a foundation in MIS sufficient to understand and effectively use information systems. Topics include types of information systems, role of MIS in organizations, CIO issues, ERP systems, and electronic commerce.

MGT 653 – Operations Management

Introduction to major managerial problems and decision processes of operations management. Topics include the design of operations, planning, scheduling, quality control, systems analysis and evaluation, resource allocation, materials requirement planning, and integration of operations management with the other functional areas.

MGT 658 – Strategic Management

The formulation and implementation of strategy, from a domestic and international perspective, is explored through cases, readings, and decision simulation. An integration of all the core areas of business is emphasized. This core course is required of all MBA students.

Note: CPA exam and licensure requirements vary by state, and it is the responsibility of each student to ensure that they meet all of the requirements in the state in which they are applying, including additional work experience, specific age & citizenship requirements, additional coursework, etc. While the standard Master of Professional Accounting consists of eight courses, two additional (optional) courses are offered for students who require additional accounting coursework. To learn more about the CPA requirements, you can reference the following sites: The American Institute of CPA’s (AICPA); This Way to CPA; The National Association of State Board Accountancy (NASBA).